Sonos alarm/clock - display the time

mickeyblueeyesuk · 2012-11-08T21:25:00+00:00

It would be great if SONOS made a sonos 2 clock radio with a digital screen showing the time and all the normal features. A smaller bedroom version of the sonos where if you wake up at 5am and wanna know the time you can just look yet also have all the great features that sonos otherwise brings. Got to be a good seller and far cheaper than buying the controller to just keep in the dock showing the time!!!

Here's what I did to have a Sonos player with a digital LCD clock. This isn't for everyone, except for those people who said they'd spend whatever it takes to have this...

If you're using WiFi in your house, you can buy an older Samsung Galaxy 7.7 (or similar tablet) for around $100 - $150 now, and also purchase the Samsung desk charger for it. The desk charger is like an "L" book-end (except with a bit more of a reclining angle on the long side obviously), and the nice thing about it is that the tablet can remain plugged into the charger base even with the tablet oriented horizontally on a table.

Next, you download whatever Android clock app you like that works as a Widget. This is important because widgets are what run on the Android "desktop". Also download either the Sonos con troller widget or another one written for Sonos (which I preferred because the Sonos one didn't look as good--no offense Sonos). You'll want to reduce the brightness of the tablet's screen all the way down, and you might need another app to reduce it even further because depending upon the tablet, even the lowest brightness can still be fairly bright at night. Also, you'll have to make sure you set your tablet to NOT go into screen saver, or power-saver (which shuts of the display). If you can't prevent it from automatically turning off the display after a set number of minutes, there is another app in the Android store that you can run which prevents the screen from turning off

I have a Sonos Play:5, and I had the table slightly off to the right and in front of the Sonos so it didn't interfere with the sound. The nice thing is that the tablet is completely customizable for what you want to see on your "clock". I had a weather widget, a clock widget, and the Sonos controller widget.

Hi Richard, sounds like a good setup, I would love to see a pic of it

I agree. An alarm clock should be the next SONOS product. It should be at a lower price point (99-149 USD) so parents would be willing to put one into their kids rooms or even the guest room. I know I would and buy 4 of them instantly :-)

The Sonos "clock" should be simple, sleek design, just a snooze button and volume controls and - of yourse an LED display for the time. Done.

Come to think of it I'd probably buy 4 myself. One for the bathroom, three bedsides. As long as the price was in that 99-149 sweet range.

So I am not alone wanting this.

I have Sonos kit throughout the house except the bedrooms where we still use old clock radios BECAUSE WE NEED A CLOCK and don't want to waste a plug socket.

How about, instead of building it in and having a new range of products, put a simple interface on the back of the existing speaker models and design a small digital clock module to plug into it? Then it is not such a radical redesign of the speakers and the clock itself could go on top of the speaker or anywhere nearby within the interface cable length.

My ideal clock must sync the time with the internet (obviously) so no forgetting daylight saving, and be small enough to sit on a One or any other speaker, be in the same colour choices (Black or White), be designed to sit on top of the speakers if desired and look good, have a thin flexible interface cable so it can be placed next to the speakers if desired.

It would be great if it had a display that dims depending on room brightness (a simple photoelectric cell) so it is bright enough to see in the day but dimmer at night and have battery backup,.

I would buy at least 2 of these (and the speakers to drive them) and it looks like many others would do the same.

Come on Sonos this really would cost peanuts in design and would extend your product range use quite dramatically. Cheers, Dave

I would love to have an alarm clock. Please don't make me buy a Bose Wave. I love my sonos but want an alarm clock function so I can use it in my bedroom. This thread goes back two years so is there anything on the horizon?

So I am not alone wanting this.

I have Sonos kit throughout the house except the bedrooms where we still use old clock radios BECAUSE WE NEED A CLOCK and don't want to waste a plug socket.

How about, instead of building it in and having a new range of products, put a simple interface on the back of the existing speaker models and design a small digital clock module to plug into it? Then it is not such a radical redesign of the speakers and the clock itself could go on top of the speaker or anywhere nearby within the interface cable length.

My ideal clock must sync the time with the internet (obviously) so no forgetting daylight saving, and be small enough to sit on a One or any other speaker, be in the same colour choices (Black or White), be designed to sit on top of the speakers if desired and look good, have a thin flexible interface cable so it can be placed next to the speakers if desired.

It would be great if it had a display that dims depending on room brightness (a simple photoelectric cell) so it is bright enough to see in the day but dimmer at night and have battery backup,.

I would buy at least 2 of these (and the speakers to drive them) and it looks like many others would do the same.

Come on Sonos this really would cost peanuts in design and would extend your product range use quite dramatically. Cheers, Dave

Come on Sonos, at least reply with a yes or no.

You have a USB port on the back, there must be 1000s of factories in the far east who would love to manufacture a clock for you.

There are plenty on ebay but I want the quality housing to go with the speakers plus a photocell to run it dim when the room is dark

Yes, please create the Sonos PLAY:Sleep, with the following features: - flat (the size of a clock radio) - 2-3 customizable (by app) wake-up times that can be configured by app - light-sensitive time display - snooze button - the speaker can be weaker of course, as it is supposed to be for the bedside - price tag of 100 I started with a Play:1 a year ago and after a month I was aching for a second one to create a pair. Last week I went ahead and bought the further Play:1 and Play:3... so if you come out with the Play:Sleep, I will buy one and then eventually one for my wife, my two kids and the guest room. 🙂

Dear Sonos - I'm a long time Squeezebox customer but the latest BBC move to discontinue WMA feeds is making me consider switching to Sonos (again!) since SB is lacking development. However the Logitech SqueezeBox Radio is a near perfect device as a clock radio and priced appropriately - it would meet the requirements expressed by most people on this thread. I really think Sonos should come up with something very similar.

Here's what I did to have a Sonos player with a digital LCD clock. This isn't for everyone, except for those people who said they'd spend whatever it takes to have this...

If you're using WiFi in your house, you can buy an older Samsung Galaxy 7.7 (or similar tablet) for around $100 - $150 now, and also purchase the Samsung desk charger for it. The desk charger is like an "L" book-end (except with a bit more of a reclining angle on the long side obviously), and the nice thing about it is that the tablet can remain plugged into the charger base even with the tablet oriented horizontally on a table.

Next, you download whatever Android clock app you like that works as a Widget. This is important because widgets are what run on the Android "desktop". Also download either the Sonos con troller widget or another one written for Sonos (which I preferred because the Sonos one didn't look as good--no offense Sonos). You'll want to reduce the brightness of the tablet's screen all the way down, and you might need another app to reduce it even further because depending upon the tablet, even the lowest brightness can still be fairly bright at night. Also, you'll have to make sure you set your tablet to NOT go into screen saver, or power-saver (which shuts of the display). If you can't prevent it from automatically turning off the display after a set number of minutes, there is another app in the Android store that you can run which prevents the screen from turning off

I have a Sonos Play:5, and I had the table slightly off to the right and in front of the Sonos so it didn't interfere with the sound. The nice thing is that the tablet is completely customizable for what you want to see on your "clock". I had a weather widget, a clock widget, and the Sonos controller widget.

I agre eand need two of these. What is the status?

I have been a Sonos customer for years (a zone in every room, Playbar, sub, and surrounds in the living room) and I would LOVE to see Sonos introduce something like this. I'd buy a couple, at least.

Do it Sonos! A Sonos alarm clock is your next million+ seller!

Nah, instead they're doing a limited release of the play 1, for an extra $50. And still no clock on it....

Agreed - I don't give an $$$$ about a different paint job - put a dimmable screen and snooze button and I'd buy 4 of them straight up

Nah, instead they're doing a limited release of the play 1, for an extra $50. And still no clock on it....

Squeezebox couldn't sell enough of them to keep going when they moved their line to it.

We haven't seen anything really new though from Sonos in some time. There has to be some new hardware on the horizon.

The Amazon Echo works well as an alarm clock and is available today. Its probably less critical for an alarm clock to be part of your Sonos ecosystem than it is for players in other rooms.

Nah, instead they're doing a limited release of the play 1, for an extra $50. And still no clock on it....

This was frustrating for me as well so I came up with my own solution. See my post above titled "Here's what I did to have a Sonos player with a digital LCD clock".

You can find a Samung Galaxy 7-inch tablet on Amazon for under $100 and a desk doc-charger that allows the tablet to stand horizontally (at a pleasing angle) on a table/nightstand.

I downloaded a few Android widgets, including a nice clock/weather , auto-launcher app, and app to prevent the screen-saver from running. I configured the auto-launcher to kill the full-screen "clock" app during the day (1 minute before my Sonos alarm was programmed to sound) so that the clock, weather, and Sonos widgets were all visible on the screen at the same time. I also configured the auto-launcher to run the full-screen "clock" app in the evening a few hours before going to sleep. I also programmed the (very cool) clock app to auto-dim around 10pm and auto-undim about an hour before the clock program task would be ended in the morning.

My Sonos 5 sat behind tablet and off to the side a bit so that obstruction of the sound wasn't really a problem.

This works great because even while the clock app might have been running full-screen, I could always tap the "invisible" app bar at the bottom of the screen and launch the Sonos widget/app if necessary to control music, then return to the full-screen clock app (at night). During the day I had an awesome clock/weather app showing on the same screen as the Sonos control.

The best part about this type of setup is that the clock, weather, and Sonos widgets are infinitely customizable to every person's own preference, so you pretty much have your own designer all-in-one Sonos clock-weather-radio.

I'll try to add photos at some point to my original post above.